Running head CASE STUDY
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All About Case Studies
Megale Russell
Liberty University
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All About Case Studies
What is a case study? A case is a set of circumstances, a situation, or object requiring
investigation (Merriam-Webster’s dictionary, 2019). An example can be a collection of
information concerning specific instances of something, such as an event, problem, process,
activity, program, a single person, or several people. To study is to carefully examine or analyze
something (Merriam-Webster’s dictionary, 2019). The word study can also be defined as the act
of learning, discovering, investigating and or seeing a specific person, place, or thing. So, what
exactly is a case study? Information on case studies discussed along with the advantages and
disadvantages of a case study, reasons researchers use case studies and how to obtain knowledge
to use for a case study.
What Is A Case Study?
The definition of a case study is an in-depth observation of an individual, animal, event, or
treatment method (Crawford, 2010). A case study is a nonexperimental research method. When
performing a case study, it is up to the researcher to scrutinize the subject of study to obtain
detailed information and or data. A case study allows researchers to view topics as they naturally
occur.
Advantages & Disadvantages
A case study is a nonexperimental research method that has its advantages and disadvantages.
Case studies allow researchers to study unusual occurrences and access to better understand
nonexperimental situations. A case study supplies Insight into aspects of human thinking and
behavior that would be unethical or impractical to study in other ways. On the downside of case
studies there are disadvantages. Case studies, unfortunately, have limitations. Limitations of case
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studies include the inability to make a general statement of results to a larger population. Another
disadvantage of the case study research method the influence of bias opinions, difficult to make
an exact copy and time-consuming.
Reasons to Conduct Case Studies
Researchers use case studies for various reasons. Case studies are typically used to explore the
nature of an event, problem, process, activity, program, a single person, or group of people. Case
studies are used to develop new ideas. Case studies explain how problems are solved and come
from an overall point of view (McLeod, 2019).
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References
American Psychological Associations. (2010). Publication manual of the American Association
(6
th
ed.) Washington, DC. Author
Crawford, R. (2019). Introduction to research: Less fright, more insight (Custom 3rd ed.).
Dubuque, IA. (Crawford, 2019)
McLeod, S.A. (2019, Aug 03). Case study method. Retrieved
from https:// www.simplypsychology.org/case-
study.html
Case. (n.d.). Merriam-Webster’s dictionary. Retrieved September 18, 2019
from merriam-webster.com/dictionary/case
Study. (n.d.). Merriam-Webster’s dictionary. Retrieved September 18, 2019
from merriam-webster.com/dictionary/study
